Excessive overuse of existing antibiotics and a lack of research and development into finding new ones means there now is a lack of new antibiotics in development, posing a potential global crisis in healthcare.

Europe’s reply is a pioneering approach to antibiotic research that will see pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies working alongside public partners, sharing information that could be useful in developing new drugs.

But the clock is ticking and experts warn that the antibiotics cupboard is already bare.

Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization has made the issue a top priority. She told a recent meeting of infectious disease experts in Copenhagen that every antibiotic ever developed was at risk of becoming useless.

“A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill,” Dr. Chan said in a speech in the Danish capital in March.

Pharmaceutical companies do not want to throw cash at antibiotics R&D.